Senate honors our fallen in week nine
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March 12, 2014 |
By Idaho Senator Shawn Keough
On Friday, March 7, the State Senate honored
four Idaho servicemen who fought and lost their
lives in Afghanistan during 2013. Families of
the honorees attended the special ceremony. The
men honored were U.S. Army Specialist Thomas P.
Murach, 22, Meridian, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant
Octavio Herrera, 26, Caldwell, U.S. Army
Specialist Mitchell K. Daehling, 24, who grew up
in Pocatello, and our own U.S. Air Force Captain
David Lyon, 28, of Sandpoint.
Jeannie and Bob Lyon attended the memorial in
the Senate Chambers and met with senators and
the governor afterward. This is the third year
the Senate has held a memorial to honor Idaho
servicemen killed while serving their country.
Since 9/11/2001 through December 2013, 49 Idaho
soldiers have been killed while serving our
country.
Sadly, in January of this year our area lost
another soldier – Staff Sgt. Afton Ponce of
Priest River.
I was honored and privileged to carry the
memorial for Captain Lyon on the Senate floor.
Sharing the stories and memories of the family
and community members was a profoundly humbling
experience. I’m struck by the many sentiments
shared with me by the family and especially
these words from his wife Dana: “Although we all
believe his life ended too soon, let’s celebrate
the life he lived and the legacy he leaves
behind.”
This ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty puts
all things in perspective.
We appear to be right on course for the goal of
a March 21 end to this legislative session, with
long days and long sessions taking place.
Last week, our budget committee approved a
budget for community colleges, which I am
pleased to support. It includes $302,300 to
expand North Idaho College’s Sandpoint Outreach
Center.
NIC serves over 600 students in Sandpoint. In
addition, the center now provides a full
associate’s degree program.
This funding, coupled with the commitments from
NIC as well as Lewis Clark State College, make
it possible to obtain a four year college degree
closer to home for the people in our
communities.
Also last week, the budget committee set the
state’s K-12 budget, which is almost 50% of our
state’s general fund and perhaps the most
important budget we set.
We have approved the best public schools budget
since 2008.
The budget reverses $35 million in cuts that
school districts absorbed during the economic
downturn of the last decade and provides our
schools with a $66 million raise. Our budget
gives more money for Idaho classrooms and
teacher training and provides raises for staff.
This is good news for Idaho’s schools and most
importantly, Idaho’s school children.
Funding at the state level helps to lessen the
burden on our local property tax payers, who the
school districts have to ask to pick up the tab
when money runs short from Boise.
Other legislation of interest last week
includes:
In response to the audit findings of the
Legislature’s Audit Office, the Senate voted
unanimously in favor of S1350, which would
create a five-person State Treasurer Investment
Advisory Board and removal of securities lending
agreements from the list of allowable
investments by the state treasurer.
The Senate also unanimously approved of S1377,
which clarifies that the responsibility for
adoption of curriculum lies at the local school
district trustee level. During discussion on
Idaho Core Standards, it was pointed out that
Idaho code was in conflict with practice as well
as rule in regard to who is responsible for
adoption of curriculum.
S1309 would make changes to help prevent private
property owners from having to pay large amounts
of money to protect their land from
condemnation. It allows the court to require
government entities to reimburse the property
owner for reasonable cost of fighting eminent
domain, especially if the condemnation process
is amended. It was unanimously approved by the
Senate.
S1353 would give some juvenile offenders a
second chance to get on the right track. The
bill would allow a juvenile case to be dismissed
if the offender successfully completes and
graduates from an authorized juvenile drug court
program, juvenile mental health court program or
other authorized problem solving court program.
This is similar to what is currently allowed for
adults. The Senate approved the bill 35-0.
The Senate hopes to crack down on patent trolls
with S1354. Patent trolls send threatening
demand letters to businesses large and small,
containing vague allegations of patent
infringement and demand payment from those
businesses.
Many pay because of the intimidation and fear of
the cost to defend against patent infringement
lawsuits. This bill gives the Idaho Attorney
General the ability to carry out action under
the Idaho Consumer Protection Act. It passed
unanimously.
Also passing unanimously was S1369, which gives
the attorney general's office oversight and
allows the office to do preliminary
investigations of claims of civil or criminal
law violations brought against county officials.
The Senate voted unanimously in favor of H391,
which may make more low interest loans available
for communities to upgrade their wastewater
treatment systems. The bill will allow funds to
be transferred between the drinking water and
wastewater state revolving loan accounts,
allowing money to be used where it is most
needed.
The dedicated drinking water fund has had unused
money the past couple of years while there is
currently a high number of requests for
wastewater loans.
When the budget was set for the Department of
Administration, JFAC attached some legislative
intent language regarding contracts. It requires
the department to re-examine its contract
management practices, report back to the
legislature on that next year, and to notify the
legislature in writing 90 days in advance of any
early contract renewal.
In addition, the department would be required to
submit a list of contracts exceeding $1 million
that are due for renewal in the upcoming fiscal
year as part of the budget-setting process.
This is in direct response to what many
legislators believe has been mismanagement of
contracts by the Department of Administration
and in particular the contract for the Idaho
Education Network, which has connected every
high school in the state with high speed
broadband capabilities.
At this point, there are 758 different pieces of
legislation that have been introduced.
Bills are moving very quickly through the system
now and the next two weeks – likely the final
weeks of the session – will be very busy indeed.
I truly appreciate the fact that so many of you
stay in touch with me during the legislative
session. As always, I look forward to hearing
from you about your perspectives and opinions on
the bills before us.
Please continue to stay in touch!
The best way to reach me is via an email message
at
skeough@senate.idaho.gov or through our toll
free message center at 1-800-626-0471. |
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